Future of the Full Moon
by EldarWannabe
Summary: A third year moment for the marauders. What do you see when you look in the tea dregs of a werewolf...


Disclaimer: Due to extremely unfortunate luck, all Harry Potter characters, ideas, places, and all the good stuff is not mine. It belongs to the incredibly lucky J.K. Rowling. Suing won't bring you much luck, as all you'll get is an outdated laptop and my postcard collection. And Tibethia Abershot is MINE so hands off.

Author's Note: This being the first bit of HP fanfic I've ever posted, I just want to say that I felt the need to extend my horizons. That said, this vignette has got an interesting history behind it. I was randomly searching through Remus Lupin fansites (him being my favorite HP character) and I stumbled across some wild theory. According to some group of fans, before he died, James Potter and Remus Lupin switched bodies, so when Voldemort came crashing through the door blasting anything alive, he killed _Remus Lupin_ in _James Potter's_ body. Now, I find the whole thing absurd, but the people actually had textual bits to back themselves up. One that stuck out in my mind as particularly difficult to explain was the fact that in the third book, Professor Trelawny offers to do a crystal ball reading for Remus and he "positively flees". Now, the debate is, why the heck would he make a run for it if the whole staff already knew about him being a werewolf? So, he must have something else to hide! I _still_ find the whole idea preposterous, and think it's far more likely for Remus to have a random brother names Romulus pop up and stab Remus in the back before finding some previously undiscovered land and naming it after himself. So I wrote this as my own attempt to explain away this theory (as well as the fact that I find it a nice moment in the Marauder's lives, and may one day write a story to go with this)

If you actually bothered to read that, good for you. I'll get the story down now.

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"Hey, Remus," James said, dropping into one of the nearby chairs. "Derlscoft kept us late. Sirius was trying to charm his way out if detention. Think it might have actually worked this time. How's the Ancient Runes doing?"

"Fine," Remus answered, looking up from his copy of _Very Old Scribbles and How to Interpret Them_ just as Sirius and Peter scrambled through the hole into the common room. "How's the future looking?"

"Wet," James answered, pulling out _The Future: Knowing What Will Happen Earlier then Everyone Else_ and flipping to one of the earlier pages, "Not to mention that it tastes bad."

"Needs sugar," Peter added as he settled down into one of the chairs.

"What about you?" Sirius asked, dumping his books on the floor. "How does the future look for the denizens of the dark?"

"Grim," Remus answered as Sirius picked up the cup of tea Remus had been drinking while waiting for them.

"Figuratively or literally?" James asked, pausing as he pulled a bit of parchment from his bag.

"Factually," Remus answered darkly, "Only a few days to go now."

"You know, no matter how I look at it, it still just looks like dregs to me," Sirius said, turning the cup one way and tilting his head the other in an obvious effort to see something in brownish depths.

"Because you're doing it wrong, Black," said an exasperated voice, as the tallest girl in the year stepped out from behind Peter's chair.

"Who asked you, Apricot?" James asked dismissively.

"That's _Abershot_ to you, Potter," she turned to Sirius, "And you're _still_ doing it wrong," and with that Tibethia Abershot snatched the cup from Sirius's hand.

"Hey!" Sirius protested, but she had already begun to turn the cup.

"Hmmm…the skull…a crooked cross…blimey, you're going to have a miserable life, Lupin…"

"Thanks," Remus said dryly, turning a page in his book.

"Hang on a sec…I've never seen that before…looks sort of like the full moon…" Tibethia squinted into the cup.

The Marauders all looked up at Tibethia, frozen in their seats.

She tilted her head slightly to the side, "…but from this angle it almost looks like a dog…but not quite…"

Remus blanched, James dropped his book, and Peter turned nearly as white as the parchment in his lap. Sirius, on the other hand, leapt up and grabbed the cup out of Tibethia's hand.

"Give it here, Black!" she exclaimed, "I might have found a new sign!"

"I think you need a new pair of eyes, Apricot. You were exclaiming over a bit of sugar." Sirius answered calmly, looking down into the cup.

"_Sugar!_" Tibethia cried, sounding scandalized, "You can't read a cup with _sugar!_"

Sirius shrugged, "Oops".

Tibethia sputtered indignantly for a few moments, then stormed away, muttering things like, "…bloody fool…sugar, I ask you!…idiot can't even read a cup properly…"

Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped the side of the cup with it, clearing the last remains of liquid. "Sorry, Moony," he said, dropping the cup on a table. "I didn't think that would happen."

Remus shook his head, "Neither did I."

James reached down to pick up his book, "I'd avoid crystal balls if I were you, mate" he said, leafing for his page.

"And use tea bags," Peter added.

"I'll just avoid the future in general then, shall I?" Remus said, uncorking a bottle of ink and dipping his quill in.

"Yeah, stick to the ancient runes," Sirius advised, pulling out _Intermediate Transfiguration_ and flipping to the end, "The past is far less revealing." 

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A/N: Well, there it is in all it's glory. If you didn't manage to pick it up, Sirius, James and Peter are all taking Divination and Remus is taking Ancient Runes. Why? Well, if I were a werewolf, I wouldn't want to be informed by _my_ Divination teacher that someday soon someone's going to take a silver bullet/dagger to _my_ heart. 

Anyway, I know you see that little Review button. You want to press it, you know you do…


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